Cutter's Hope

by A. J. Downey

  “Okay, Sweetheart, take it easy. I’m gonna trust you first this time,” I helped her to sit up and sat behind her, my legs bracketing her hips as I undid the belt binding her arms sharply behind her. The leather gave with a little sigh and Hope groaned. I massaged the feeling back into her arms and drew her back against my chest, pressing my lips to the side of her neck. She shuddered.

  “Make the call,” she whispered and I leaned forward, bringing up Skype. I tapped the screen and the laptop started making the call to Data, the Sacred Hearts computer whizz and Secretary. His face came up and so did ours in a smaller screen in the corner. The black curtains were drawn behind the man and he eyed Hope cautiously. He didn’t know her and this was highly irregular but fuck it. She’d been through enough.

  “What the hell happened to you two?” Data asked.

  “Philosophical differences,” I grunted.

  “Uh huh. To what do I owe the pleasure, Man?”

  “Thirteen and his Ol’ Lady around?”

  “Can’t say that they are, Cutter man, what’s up? Usually you ask after Reave and Doll, what do you want with Thirteen and Dani?”

  I put my arms around Hope who was holding her breath, I could feel her stillness and I smiled, and I knew it was sad. I spelled it out for Data and he nodded thoughtfully. He turned in his desk chair and twitched back the curtain and hollered out into the common room. Dragon appeared a minute later and I reiterated the mess in my lap.

  “I’ll call Thirteen. Not sure what Dani can tell you, but I’m sure if she can help she will. Can you ring us back sometime after noon tomorrow?”

  “Can and will do, my friend. I owe you.” Dragon snorted and called bullshit.

  “With as much as you’ve done for me and mine, this ain’t nothin’. Call us back on this thing tomorrow, noon-ish. Data will be here waiting.”

  Hope found her voice, “Thank you,” she said.

  “Don’t thank me, Darlin’, that’s all Dani, I hope she can help you,” he said.

  “Thanks, Brother,” I said and he nodded.

  “Want I should give Reave and Doll a shout to come in here?”

  “No thanks man, I gotta get going for now, get us both cleaned up.”

  Dragon’s dark eyes roved the screen on his end of things, “What the hell happened to you two, anyways?” he asked.

  “Philosophical differences,” Hope repeated and I looked at her, she looked back and shrugged. Dragon chuckled.

  “Okay, whatever you say. Tomorrow then.”

  “Tomorrow,” I affirmed and Data ended the call. Hope sat very still between my thighs, my arms around her, holding her hands with my own; my palms resting against the backs of her hands, my fingers fitted in the spaces between hers like they were meant to be there. I sighed and nuzzled the side of her neck, placing a kiss behind her ear. Hope shivered and rested her head back against my shoulder so she could look up at me.

  “I want to help you,” I murmured, voice a little rough with my physical need at this point.

  “I don’t understand,” she said softly.

  “I like you, Hope.”

  “I shoved a gun in your face and threatened to blow your head off,” she said dryly.

  “I know, it was hot.”

  She broke into one of her rare smiles, and laughed a little, “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What happens now?” she asked.

  “Now I finish what I started on the beach and you’re going to let me,” I said gravely.

  “Oh? What’s that?” she asked. I smiled darkly.

  “Gonna finish owning you, Sweetheart,” she shivered at my words and the sensation of her body shuddering against mine was out of this world. It was only going to get better.

  “Stand up,” I ordered.

  “If I don’t?”

  “Then I make you, I’m not going to be denied any longer, Babe. You and I have danced around this enough. Now get up and march. Bow of the boat, now.”

  “Aye, aye, Captain,” she breathed and stood up.

  Nice.

  Chapter 11

  Hope

  I must be nuttier than a goddamn fruit cake but I believed Cutter, what’s more, as much as it shouldn’t have, his getting the upper hand out there, holding me down, tying my ass up, owning my ass into next week, turned me the fuck on. I stood up and he let me. I walked towards the bow of the boat not really knowing what to expect.

  I was all mixed up and inside out, so many things happening in rapid fire succession had me twisted up in knots. To have my last and only hope of finding my sister snatched away followed by having that hope returned, even if it was just a glimmer at this point… I closed my eyes as Cutter’s hands fell onto my shoulders, kneading sore muscles.

  “Easy, Darlin’; we ain’t gotta do this right now if you ain’t up to it,” he said. I swallowed and melted a little bit more that he was giving me an out.

  “Emotions running a little high; huh Baby?” he asked me, voice husky, patient and kind. I nodded. That was putting it fucking mildly. He was close to me, right on my six as I moved up the narrow hall. I jumped slightly as his hands found the hips of my shorts. He grasped the hem of my peach silk tank and lifted. I raised my arms and let him take it. He gave an appreciative hum as I lowered my arms, and I felt his gaze like a weighted thing as it swept down my back.

  “Stop,” he ordered just before I reached the two steps at the end of the hall. His bed was flush against the door, except it was more like a cabinet door than a door into a room. I waited and he reached past me with his leather vest and hung it just inside the bedroom door, off of some invisible hook there.

  I closed my eyes and listened to him take off his shirt and drop it to the floor. The warm cotton of the tee coming to rest against my left ankle and on top of my foot. He stepped into me. Close. So close. His body heat warming my back though he wasn’t touching me quite yet.

  “Rough bother you?”

  I smiled, “No.”

  He caressed my hips, his thumbs digging into my lower back, kneading, massaging for a moment before he pulled me back against his chest.

  “Kiss me,” he demanded and I obediently tipped my head back while he palmed one of my non-existent breasts and claimed my mouth with his.

  The kiss was hot and fierce and the press of his erection into my ass left me breathless with wanting. He pinched my nipple and I gasped into his mouth, his tongue plunging further into mine as he worked the button and zip on the front of my shorts, shoving them down in front, his fingers grazing my bare sex. God that felt good.

  He growled into my mouth when he found my pussy wet and ready for him. Not like I could help it. Alpha males like him, strong enough to subdue me, smart enough to out maneuver me, they were rare and hard to come by, and I had been attracted to Cutter from the get go.

  His hands left me and I whimpered in protest which soon turned into a moan of want and need when I heard his zipper go and his shorts drop to the floor. His hands returned and smoothed up my back, around my ribs, over my stomach and chest as he felt me up. God he had nice hands. Big and strong, long fingered and calloused. One palmed the outside of my hip while the other gripped the back of my neck.

  “Take down your hair, Sweetheart,” and his voice was as sultry as the deepening night around us. I took it down and let it envelop the hand at the back of my neck. His fingers disappeared into it and he gripped the back of my hair in a hold designed for control with just the barest edge of pain. I gasped and he urged me up to the top step.

  “You on the pill?” he demanded.

  “Tubal ligation.”

  He didn’t even pause, he stepped up behind me and shoved his cock between my ass cheeks.

  “I’m going to fuck you bareback,” he declared, but paused, letting me have my say.

  “You only live once,” I said, my pussy clenching with want and need. God I wanted skin on skin with this man.

  “What are you waiting for, Cutter?” I demanded and I swear
I could hear the grin before he kicked my feet apart and slammed me face down into the soft mattress. I gasped and he shoved into me, hard.

  I cried out as he filled me, stretching me almost to the point of pain but he didn’t stop or slow down and I really fucking liked that about him.

  “Harder!” I cried and his hand tightened in my hair, his arm pressed down on my back and his hand rose from my hip. His palm crashed down onto my right ass cheek and I yowled in pleasure, my sopping cunt pressing down around his invading cock.

  “I’m going to give it to you the way I want to give it to you, you lost your fucking say the second you pointed that gun in my face.”

  Oh my fucking God that was hot, I arched, grabbing fistfuls of sheet and pressed back onto him, clenching down on him at the same time. His thrusting slowed as it became harder to work his way in and out of me.

  “Goddamn you’re fucking tight,” he uttered, voice strained.

  He let go of my hair and smoothed a hand down my spine as he went for a grip on my other hip. Fingers digging with near bruising force he held me, pressing into me deep and deeper until he bottomed out and that fucking hurt in all the right ways. So good, so deep, he filled me out and pushed my limits, and started that slow and exquisitely torturous build in my womb.

  “Oh God! Cutter, you feel so good!” I bit my lower lip, grasping it between my teeth as he rode me.

  “You going to come?” he demanded.

  “Yes!”

  “Good.”

  It was a rare thing for me, coming without the benefit of having my clit stimulated but Cutter had found the right combination. He rode over my g-spot, touched that place deep inside me, stimulated all the right places both physically and intellectually and I had about died and gone to heaven as a result. Each forward thrust of his hips was punctuated by a feral, feminine cry, spilling from my mouth, coloring the air with my desire and lust and I loved it. Couldn’t get enough of it. I was close, just so freaking close.

  Cutter’s voice broke through, “Come on, Baby, just a little bit more, tighten up for me….Yeah, that’s it! That’s a good girl, come on, Sweetheart, give it to me, YES!”

  I came, exploding all around him and over him, my arms giving out, which I don’t even remember them holding me up off the bed. I collapsed against the crisp cotton sheets and Cutter kept his rhythm, stroking deep, a little slower than before but still just as intense as my cunt quivered around his shaft.

  “Oh God!” I gasped.

  “Nope, just me, Sweetheart; not done with you yet either,” he pulled out of me and his arm snaked beneath me, his palm pressed between my tits as he bent over me, his chest pressing to my back. He straightened, taking me with him and held me panting and trembling against his chest for a moment.

  “Up into the bed, lay on your back,” he ordered and my knees were so weak it took me a couple of tries to comply. He climbed in after me and settled back between my thighs. I was so incredibly wet. Wetter than I ever remember being before in my life. Cutter gazed down at me, solid, in control, assessing me before nodding to himself and introducing his cock back into my pussy.

  I arched off the bed and he hooked my legs over his arms, palms flat to the mattress, driving into me deep, the angle different but no less erotic, no less arousing than before. It was like he touched all the places he’d missed in our initial coupling.

  “Tease your clit,” he ordered and I un-fisted the bottom sheet, letting my right hand drift that direction. I kept my eyes closed and reveled in the sensations he wrought.

  “I said touch yourself,” his voice was rough and demanding and sent an all new thrill across my nerves, I opened my eyes and the intensity of his gaze stole my breath away. His eyes were lovely, dark and deep, and that darkness had nothing to do with the color. I grazed my sensitive nub with gentle fingertips and gasped, my pussy spasming around his dick where he was buried balls deep.

  “Hmmm, oh yeah, do it again.” Cutter’s eyes drifted shut and he turned his head, savoring the sound of my cry as I did it again. It was almost too much but I didn’t want to stop. No, not at all. It felt so good, he felt so good. He resorted to these deep, short little thrusts that made my toes curl and my eyes roll back in my head.

  I was close, so very close, just that little bit more… and oh god… I came screaming his name, back arching so completely off the bed I was sure I would permanently damage something. That I would snap in two and would never be able to walk again and I didn’t even care.

  Cutter’s arms left from behind my knees and curved beneath my back, gathering me to him while he still rode deep inside my body. He kissed my chest, between my small breasts, to my throat, before placing a gentle chaste kiss on my chin. I cupped his face with gentle hands when his lips met mine. His beard tickling my palms as we kissed languorously, so slowly, the gentleness a shocking change from our rough exchange of earlier.

  He moved slowly and carefully inside me now, while I trembled uncontrollably in his arms, coming back down slowly from the stratosphere where he’d launched me. He smoothed my hair back from my face and captured my gaze with his.

  “Easy, Sweetheart, I’ve got you,” he whispered and emotion welled within me as blood welled from a cut, spilling out of my soul and welling slightly in my eyes. Ah, fuck, it wasn’t supposed to be like this. It was supposed to be a hot fuck and nothing more, I wasn’t supposed to feel anything but physically good… what the fuck was Cutter doing to me?

  “Shh, I’m right here,” his voice was soothing, tone sympathetic – no, empathetic and I swallowed hard, forcing down the confusion and myriad emotions struggling to keep them in check, to not feel what was going on. He kissed me, soft, gentle pecks of his lips on mine, hips lazily moving between my thighs. I twined my legs around him and rode on the gentle current of pleasure he sent thrumming through my core and he smiled down at me and it was probably the most beautiful and intimate smile any man had ever given me.

  My heart did a series of back flips in my chest, fluttering erratically and I think, for the first time that I could ever remember doing it, I fell a little in love.

  “You good, Sweetheart?” he asked me and I nodded and again with the smile that made my heart stutter in my chest.

  “K, hang on to me,” he ordered gently. I twined my arms around his shoulders obediently and trusted that he had me as he took me through yet another orgasm, only this one was much less fierce, a sweeping, gentle thing that left me limp with total satisfaction. He leaned down and kissed me again and I was vaguely aware of him twitching his last inside me which set off a whole ‘nother set of aftershocks through me.

  I lay gasping in Cutter’s bed, carefully bracketed by his muscular body and I felt… safe. Cared for… it was strange, unique. I was used to being in control of myself and all of my faculties and somehow, someway, Cutter had stripped me of them all. Left me bare and raw and vulnerable beneath him, and instead of lording that fact over me, he protected me. Held me in the palms of his hands, soothed me, kissed me and silently promised to use the power he held over me now for good rather than evil purposes and I think that’s where I lost it completely.

  Relief flooded out from the center of my being so strong, so absolute at being able to let go… to be able to trust and I had no fucking idea why I even did, just something about him, some sublevel vibe told me I could and right now I was going with it. I needed to go with it or I was going to implode.

  “Shh, it’s okay, I’ve got you, Sweetheart. You just go ahead and let it out,” he murmured, and so I did.

  Chapter 12

  Cutter

  She had me, hook line and sinker the moment she trembled beneath me and hitched out that broken little sob. Tough as she was, the girl had a lot going on inside and I was feeling a lot of things in that moment. Chiefly, that’d I’d brought it out in her, broken her, cracked her wide and sent all of these emotions tumbling out and now it was my duty to put her back together again. I didn’t see it as a long haul project, not with H
ope. No she would cry, she would sleep, and she would be fine again. She was a tough cookie. What surprised me was how much that disappointed me.

  I really liked her, she felt fucking amazing, and I wanted more. A lot more. I smoothed her hair from her damp cheeks, peppered her face with a bunch of damn butterfly kisses and just let her be what she needed to be. A woman finally setting a burden down, sharing the load.

  Her arms twined around me so sweetly and she held herself close to my body and I gave her shelter there. It felt damn good to be needed, but not only needed, allowed to help. Hope let me in and god damn that felt so good after months of sex and loving someone and being held forever at arm’s length… not that I faulted Li’l Bit for any of that… it just was what it was.

  I closed my eyes and breathed Hope in and banished all thought of Hayden Michaels from my heart and mind. It wasn’t fair to go there with the woman in my arms, here and now. So I shut out Li’l Bit’s small frame and haunted green eyes and focused on Hope, and the relief and other mixed up soup of emotions pouring from her. I shifted into a better position to hold her and made soothing noises, rocking her gently until she quieted and her deep and even breathing let me know she was down for the count.

  She felt so good, a solid weight against my chest, filling out my arms and it didn’t take much or very long for me to fall into a deep and satisfying sleep of my own. By the time the thump and scrape up on deck woke me up, the sun was streaming bright and strong through the portholes and Hope was stiff in my arms, listening just as I was. A series of raps above deck and I relaxed.

  “It’s cool, Sweetheart, just some of my men, probably making sure you haven’t killed me.” Hope tipped her chin against my chest, rolling her head back on my shoulder to look at me. I drew her hand to my mouth where it’d been resting on my chest and gently kissed her fingertips.

  Her eyes drifted shut at the minute touch and I smiled, still a touch raw but she’d be boot strapping herself in no time as soon as…